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New director of BBC Proms announcedDavid Pickard, currently general director at Glyndebourne, has been appointed the new director of the BBC Proms and will begin in his new post later this year. In the meantime Edward Blakeman will continue in his temporary role.

Berlin makes up its mindAfter much ado but nothing, a successor to Sir Simon Rattle at the Berliner Philharmoniker has finally been elected. Kirill Petrenko, the music director of the Bavarian State Opera, is a quiet, diligent musician who has won the admiration of fellow musicians, critics, and audiences. In later years he has been arranging his schedule to devote more of his time to fewer ensembles.

High Court rules against UK governmentThe High Court has ruled that the UK government was unlawful in introducing a private copy exception into UK copyright law without any compensation to the music community. A levy system exists across Europe to benefit the music industry for lost sales when a CD is ripped for private use, but the UK government had put nothing in place for just recompense.

James Horner (1953 – 2015)James Horner, the film music composer and winner of two Academy Awards, has died in a crash while piloting his own small aircraft. He was sixty-one.